From Singapore to Berlin - Meet Emma who recently joined our Customer Success team and shares what it’s like to get started at MotionTools as a remote team member.
Hi Emma, nice to meet you!
You actually have a background in Fashion. What made you move into Customer Success?
To sum up my background, I graduated with a Fashion Merchandising Diploma and started my first full-time job with a fashion start-up as a dressmaking trainer. I was looking to expand my professional network as the dressmaking industry in Singapore was quite niche and gave little opportunities for networking, so I turned to LinkedIn and started randomly adding people I knew from school! That was how I got introduced to the many exciting solutions other companies were creating, and it got me researching into digitalization and SaaS technology.
I landed a role in software sales for 1,5 years before realising that I have always had a certain obsession with providing the best customer experience and being more “technical” with my skills. Since then, I turned to a client-focused career direction and moving into Customer Success was a next step for me to build on my technical experience while collaborating with customers to solve their business challenges!
What’s one thing that surprised you about working at MotionTools?
Things move fast at MotionTools, in an organised manner! Our teams have managed to strike that balance between keeping things structured, documenting clearly and producing results at a fast pace.
I enjoy this structure very much as it means potentially getting more things done and solving more problems in a day! I also learned that moving fast sometimes leads to failure, but really, it is enduring these small failures from moving fast that teaches us to do better.
What’s the coolest thing you’re working on right now?
It has to be our mission to launch our knowledge base that allows customers, prospects and the public to access all the information they need on MotionTools! For anyone in search for answers or want to get started with MotionTools, the knowledge base is designed to help people achieve their goals quicker than before, and to provide a convenient and easy solution to solving problems without having to ask for help. Our aim with this launch is to transform the user experience of MotionTools to be double as intuitive, at the same time providing lots of content to keep users empowered and excited.
You recently joined MotionTools. What was the onboarding like for you?
Logistics & People Welcome: After accepting the offer letter, I had my Google account set up and I began receiving communication from HR, my team and several other departments at MotionTools. We discussed travel arrangements for my new-hire orientation which made me feel even more excited to join! I was glad that my first week of onboarding happened in-person at MotionTools’ beautiful office where I could meet the team and establish rapport over lunch and afterwork activities.
First day at MotionTools: I was greeted with fist bumps from everyone at the office, a lovely flower bouquet, sweet treats and all the equipment I needed to start! A checklist for my onboarding was assigned to help me get up to speed with account set-ups and tasks to be completed by the first week. To help me get settled in throughout the week, we had a buddy programme where I was paired with another colleague which encourages building a social network.
Rest of the onboarding weeks: The rest of the week was pretty similar to the first day, covering topics like office culture, understanding my work personality type, team meetings, product trainings, introductory calls with customers and so forth. Simple tasks were assigned to help me acclimatize to the tools and technology being used.
What was refreshing for me was that discussions with Patrick, the founder of M‑TRIBES was just as chill as any conversation I would have with colleagues! A cozy team dinner was also arranged for the Customer Success team to get to know one another better, which gave me a really good idea about our team dynamics. Finally, check-ins with the HR, my buddy and mentor after the first week were scheduled to follow up and smooth out the new-hire process.
You are working remotely from Berlin together with the team in Hamburg. How do you stay connected and collaborate well?
Three tools the Customer Success team relies heavily on: Slack, Shortcut and Notion! We use Slack for most of our discussions and communication, Shortcut for list-making and allocating tasks and Notion for documentation and collaboration. Communication within our team and across teams is open, which makes clarifying questions super simple. All I have to do is ask!
We also have a weekly meeting for reviewing the previous and current week, otherwise spontaneous calls on Slack does it when I needed more support. We also ensure that information shared on different platforms (Slack, Zendesk, Shortcut) are all aligned by referencing links to conversations, so that makes working remotely really effective.
What’s your go-to productivity trick?
My best productivity trick is working in half-hour bursts. I usually start my day by planning the tasks to be completed, and I will create a 30-minute session/s of focus time for each task before taking a 5-minute break.
You recently moved from Singapore to Berlin. What are your top tips when discovering a new city?
Go to places by foot! I used to walk at least 12.000 steps a day when I first got here. That helped me get familiarized with my neighbourhood quickly and I could remember the map better when I see street signs, metro stations and landmarks along the way to my destination. There is more to see, smell and feel and it helps me keep my travel budget! I also spend a lot of time at historical museums, or going for guided walking tours around the city’s must-visit attractions.
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